I got this e-mailed to me by a neighbor, a very conservative neighbor. I looked for it on the Internet and sure enough....It is everywhere....So as a public service.
IT IS COMPLETELY WRONG, WRONG, WRONG......
First, the comparison grouping does not work.You cannot compare Reagan's 8 years to five of Obama's.
So let's compare first five years to first years.
During Obama's first five years -- January 2009 to January 2014 -- black unemployment didn't rise at all, which is what the meme said. Rather, it fell from 12.7 percent to 12.1 -- a decline of 0.6 percentage points, or about 5 percent. The meme's claim of a 42 percent increase is way off.
During Reagan's first five years -- January 1981 to January 1986 -- black unemployment fell from 14.6 percent to 14.5 percent. That's a decline of 0.1 percentage point, or less than a 1 percent decrease. This is a lot less impressive than the meme's favored eight-year decline of 20 percent. It's also less impressive than the 5 percent decline during Obama's first five years.
SO....Obama had a 5 percent decrease and Reagan had a decrease of less than 1 percent for matching five year periods.
Of course one might also raise questions regarding how much impact a president has on unemployment among any racial or ethnic group especially when there have been no legislative initiatives passed and implemented targeting unemployment in such a group. As we know, Obama and the Dems have tried to get Congress to take up a Jobs Bill five times and it has been stopped dead by the GOP. Given that jobs growth or decline is an expression of a huge number of macroeconomic factors the impact of policy from an administration is bound to be rather limited anyway.
There are some other statistical comparisons that we can offer.....
During Reagan's full term -- January 1981 to January 1989 -- black unemployment fell from 14.6 percent to 11.8 percent. That's a decline of 2.8 percentage points, or 19 percent. That's close to what the meme said.
If we instead look at Obama's entire term to date -- January 2009 to April 2015 -- black unemployment fell from 12.7 percent to 9.6 percent. That's down 3.1 percentage points, or a decrease of 24 percent. That's a more impressive decline than under Reagan's entire term.
So across their entire terms Reagan had a decline of 19 percent while Obama had a decline of 24 percent.
A few more....
1) The black unemployment rate peaked at 21.2 percent under Reagan in January 1983, but the peak under Obama was significantly lower -- 16.8 percent in March 2010.
2) The low point for black unemployment under Reagan was 11 percent, reached twice in 1988. The low point under Obama is 9.6 percent, which is the current rate. That's lower than the lowest point under Reagan.
3)Under Reagan, black unemployment exceeded its worst level under Obama -- 16.8 percent -- for 26 consecutive months, or more than two years straight.
NO MATTER HOW YOU LOOK AT IT.....OBAMA HAS THE BETTER RECORD...NOTHING WONDERFUL, MIND YOU, BUT BETTER.
AND
MORE TO THE POINT.....THE INTERNET CLAIM HIGHLIGHTED HERE IS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.